Campaigns destroyed by catering to whims…

[jasper]

Campaigns destroyed by catering to whims…

Campaigns destroyed by catering to whims…

Ok in another thread….
Evil Eli……
I will damned if I let a group of RPG players tell what my campaign (That I wrote and run) should and should not be!
[...]
Catering to the players whims and wants will eventually ruining any half way decent campaign and I speak from experince!


Interesting. Care to tell the story (perhaps in its own thread)? My experience and preferences tend toward the polar opposite.

. . . . . . . – Eric

Ok Eric here is a few reasons I have the core or door policy. Or will gladly accept bribes of books for my collection.


The evil mage who no one knew was evil.
Player wanted to use the Complete Elf book. He gave me photo copies of what he said was all the necessary info. Forgetting the max stat page. So he is running around with an elf with the best int in the party a 19. And that was just the beginning. This became one player we never called if we were gaming.

The Power up Paladin player. I forget the splat book but he loaned the book to me 3 days before the game. I was not able to cover all and told him so. Now one of my house rules is a new character has full normal gear and 3 CLW potions. All other magic depends on the adventure. The paladin automatically gets full field plate AC 1 in second Ac 19 in third. Spells at second level. Still no problem. He levels up to third and automatically summons a +5 holy avenger. In the middle of combat. He didn’t think I should be mad because it was listed in the splat book. Forgetting they are in a poor dunk town. Hundreds of miles away from his temple. And the other paladins imc were happy to get their holy avengers at seventh level.


The magic missle machine gun mage. Think of the mac ten with a magic missle wand in the clip. No problem because the other four dms allow it. Not one mention the drawback. So the pcs hoping in and out of worlds. In one campaign they are slaying dragons at fifth level. My campaign was not set up for it. Oh the drawback I discovered while under a different dm. The percentage chance of backfire is equal to the number of missles shot off 0-20. This was how many months of them mowing down monsters imc.


Honest I DMed that module but don’t remember it all that well… too many times in my early years.


Phasers and light sabers should be solar powered. I created my own S3 module and originally was going to have the power packs run out.

 

[stevelabny]

there's a LARGE difference between letting new players create their own high level characters with splat book PRCs and special gear and letting a regular player in your campaign find a feat/item/PRC from a splat book and asking if his character can somehow acquire it.

 

[Dark Jezter]

The evil mage who no one knew was evil.
Player wanted to use the Complete Elf book. He gave me photo copies of what he said was all the necessary info. Forgetting the max stat page. So he is running around with an elf with the best int in the party a 19. And that was just the beginning. This became one player we never called if we were gaming.

I know a few DMs who refused to allow The Complete Book of Elflovers in their 2e AD&D campaigns. Mainly due to the incredibly overpowered bladesinger class, but also because the book portrayed elves in general as being so perfect it was nauseating.

 

[Malk]

I can honestly say that every campaign that i have ever played in or dm'ed has been enriched by the DM taking into account what the players want. This may be because i have never played with someone who wanted to take advantage of the rules or to "win" all of my players and comrades have the grand story and everyones fun in mind.

 

[Victim]

I don't see the relationship between tailoring gameplay to fit the player's interests, and allowing players to give their characters whatever broken abilities they want or allowing them abilities you don't completely understand (possibly due to players deliberately withholding info).

 

[Belen]

It's fine to cater to interests; but carte blanche should be denied at every opportunity. I once made the mistake of saying that they could choose at will from any WOTC book.

Now I have to approve everything no listed in the three core books. Heck, I have to approve the PrCs from the core books!

Dave

 

[Hjorimir]

I don't see the relationship between tailoring gameplay to fit the player's interests, and allowing players to give their characters whatever broken abilities they want or allowing them abilities you don't completely understand (possibly due to players deliberately withholding info).

Often those two things are one and the same in the eyes of the player. I've heard all sorts of arguments on why I'm a bad DM for not allowing a certain character concept into one of my campaigns. When the players stop showing up, I will start asking myself what I'm doing wrong. As it is, I have to turn players away because I have just too many of them who want into my campaigns.

Hrmm...I guess I've done okay then.

 

[Pagan priest]

Campaigns destroyed by catering to whims…

Ok Eric here is a few reasons I have the core or door policy. Or will gladly accept bribes of books for my collection.

The Power up Paladin player. I forget the splat book but he loaned the book to me 3 days before the game. I was not able to cover all and told him so. Now one of my house rules is a new character has full normal gear and 3 CLW potions. All other magic depends on the adventure. The paladin automatically gets full field plate AC 1 in second Ac 19 in third. Spells at second level. Still no problem. He levels up to third and automatically summons a +5 holy avenger. In the middle of combat. He didn’t think I should be mad because it was listed in the splat book. Forgetting they are in a poor dunk town. Hundreds of miles away from his temple. And the other paladins imc were happy to get their holy avengers at seventh level.

He was right, you should not have been mad. It was listed, you had the opportunity to know this in advance. On the other hand, the player should have told you about the specific changes the splat book made to the character. Was this The Complete Book of Paladins by any chance?

The magic missle machine gun mage. Think of the mac ten with a magic missle wand in the clip.

Oh the drawback I discovered while under a different dm. The percentage chance of backfire is equal to the number of missles shot off 0-20. This was how many months of them mowing down monsters imc.

Player dishonesty can ruin a game. This was cheating, pure and simple, to not tell you of the drawback to the weapon.

I wish the players in my campaign would be creative and put enough effort into their characters to come up with PrC's... core, optional or third party, if I could excuse it being in my world, I would be happy.

 

[Harlock]

I cater to my players as much as I can while still trying to maintain some semblance of balance. My players are actually very good about recognizing broken abilities and such and not abusing them.

I still maintain full veto power over ANY PrC. Period. I have some roleplay requirements that I'd like to see players meet before they just hit tenth level and someone up and tells me, "I'm taking PrC X this level." Just me, I suppose. Anyway, DMs that have a problem with players using a broken ability, feat, PrC, splatbook or machinegun wand of magic missiles just need to remember one thing: In an arms race, the DM always wins. Just give the bad guys the same stuff and watch them mow down your players and consider it tough love.

 

[ciaran00]

Though none of my players have done it yet, I would kill a character if his player lied to me about something critical. Your perogative, right?

ciaran